Danger Close – VG247http://www.vg247.com
VG247.comFri, 09 Dec 2016 21:47:52 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.3A look back at what Medal of Honor: Warfighter did right and wronghttp://www.vg247.com/2014/09/16/a-look-back-at-what-medal-of-honor-warfighter-did-right/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/09/16/a-look-back-at-what-medal-of-honor-warfighter-did-right/#respondTue, 16 Sep 2014 09:48:09 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=491563Remember Medal of Honor: Warfighter? The game’s still alive on some servers.

Our resident Battlefield expert, Westie, has returned to the shooter to see how it fares in today’s market. In the video below he goes over what the game got right and what it got wrong.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/09/16/a-look-back-at-what-medal-of-honor-warfighter-did-right/feed/0EA opens DICE LA, will work on Star Wars IPhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/05/15/ea-opens-dice-la-will-work-on-star-wars-ip/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/15/ea-opens-dice-la-will-work-on-star-wars-ip/#commentsWed, 15 May 2013 08:30:56 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=366876EA has just announced a new DICE studio based on Los Angeles, according to a fresh report in the Wall Street Journal. The studio will work on the Star Wars IP, which was recently farmed out to EA.

The WSJ article begins, “Electronic Arts, fresh off announcing it cut 10% of its workforce to trim costs, is investing in a new Los Angeles studio for its Stockholm-based DICE game developer with the goal of poaching talent from rivals like Activision Blizzard”.

The article suggests that DICE will – in general – be a ‘key cog’ in EA’s plans for the star Wars IP, and that the new LA outfit will “help with recruiting talent”. DICE’s general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson told the site, “There is an extreme talent pool over that we want a part of. It’s no secret that our main competitor is there,” in reference to Activision studios Treyarch and Infinity Ward.

Troedsson added that DICE LA hopes to add 60 staff by the end of 2013, and that DICE needs to expand after the success of Battlefield 3. Members of Medal of Honor studio Danger Close have been employed at DICE LA already, as well as ‘outside talent’.

He added that EA is considering either making brand new Star Wars stories in its games, or expanding on stories already out there in the canon.

Intrepid internet snooper Superannuation also added on Twitter:

When the Star Wars-EA deal was announced, the publisher announced that DICE, Visceral Games and BioWare would be making Star Wars games. Today’s announcement could mean that the DICE game is actually the first project for DICE LA.

What do you make on the above?

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/15/ea-opens-dice-la-will-work-on-star-wars-ip/feed/14Medal of Honor: Warfighter dev turned down consultancy from the man who shot Bin Ladenhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/02/12/medal-of-honor-warfighter-dev-turned-down-consultancy-from-the-man-who-shot-bin-laden/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/12/medal-of-honor-warfighter-dev-turned-down-consultancy-from-the-man-who-shot-bin-laden/#commentsTue, 12 Feb 2013 08:09:24 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=339094Medal of Honor: Warfighter was always billed as an authentic experience that tackled the trials and trauma of men at war. Why then did EA and Danger Close turn down advice and insight from the man who shot Bin Laden?

‘The Shooter’ as he is simply known for anonymity purposes has been interviewed by Esquire about his re-adjustment to normal life and his time in the services.

As of April 2012 the game was said to have enlisted the consultancy of some 30 military officials, so ‘The Shooter’s uncle contacted EA on his behalf, asking if they would like to hear from the man himself.

Allegedly, an EA representative told his uncle that while the game did use advice sourced from some retired military officials, they would rather hear from active SEALS members. As ‘The Shooter’ was retired at the time, they turned him down.

It’s a tricky area, as who knows what sort of press or political backlash may have ensued if word got out that an FPS game was linked to the man who shot Bin Laden? It could have been positive, or it could have been very bad for EA.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/12/medal-of-honor-warfighter-dev-turned-down-consultancy-from-the-man-who-shot-bin-laden/feed/17Medal of Honor: Warfighter Zero Dark Thirty now availablehttp://www.vg247.com/2012/12/18/medal-of-honor-warfighter-zero-dark-thirty-now-available/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/18/medal-of-honor-warfighter-zero-dark-thirty-now-available/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2012 02:58:40 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=325431As promised, EA has today delivered a map pack in celebration of Zero Dark Thirty, a new film chronicling the capture of Osama Bin Laden. Available on Origin today and due on console networks this week, the pack includes two new multiplayer maps, Darra and Chitral, 14 weapon camos and six sets of attachments. It’s free to Limited and Digital Deluxe edition owners, and $10/800 MS Points otherwise; $1 from each sale in the US or Canada through March 19 2014 will be send to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/18/medal-of-honor-warfighter-zero-dark-thirty-now-available/feed/0Medal of Honor Warfighter: watch VG247 play the first missionhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/26/medal-of-honor-warfighter-watch-vg247-play-the-first-mission/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/26/medal-of-honor-warfighter-watch-vg247-play-the-first-mission/#commentsFri, 26 Oct 2012 07:18:10 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=310591Medal of Honor: Warfighter is out across Europe from today, and reviews scores have been middling to low. Watch VG247’s Dave Cook play the first full mission, and talk about gameplay below.

What do you think of the game based on the footage above? Let us know below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/26/medal-of-honor-warfighter-watch-vg247-play-the-first-mission/feed/15MoH: Warfighter transitions developers and players both to multiplayerhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/24/moh-warfighter-transitions-developers-and-players-both-to-multiplayer/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/24/moh-warfighter-transitions-developers-and-players-both-to-multiplayer/#commentsWed, 24 Oct 2012 22:10:13 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=310099Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a head-first dive into multiplayer for its developers, but also for its players, according to former DICE and now Danger Close staffer Kristoffer Bergqvist.

Speaking with Gamasutra, the multiplayer creative director said it’s been interesting watching Danger Close grow into a multiplayer developer.

“I’ve seen this situation at DICE already, but reversed. DICE did a great transition into single player. It was a lot of work, of course, there were a lot lessons to be learned, but I think it turned out great, I had so much fun with the Battlefield 3 single player,” he said.

“And it’s very interesting to just take everything I learned by looking at it over there and apply it, but in reverse to this studio. A big part of my job is being to build a multiplayer culture within Danger Close – or rather, expand the one that was there.”

But it’s not just Danger Close making the jump; Medal of Honor, Bergqvist noted, has ‘traditionally been a very strong single-player franchise’, with a split in the user base between those who play solely in each of the two modes.

“That’s also one of the reasons why I think it’s so important that the tools that the player learns when you play single player applies to multiplayer: to make that transition as smooth as possible,” he said.

“Of course we want players who mainly play single-player, once they’re done with it, ‘I’m gonna try multiplayer.’ And they feel at home. It’s a different arena, it’s a different kind of challenge, but at as I said, at least he knows how to play. I think that’s extremely important to this franchise.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/24/moh-warfighter-transitions-developers-and-players-both-to-multiplayer/feed/7Medal of Honor: Warfighter launch screens releasedhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-launch-screens-released/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-launch-screens-released/#respondTue, 23 Oct 2012 16:51:57 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=309582Medal of Honor: Warfighter is out today in the US, and EA has released a batch of screenshots showing off the game. The launch trailer was posted earlier here. Medal of Honor: Warfighter lands in Europe on October 25 and the UK on October 26.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-launch-screens-released/feed/0Medal of Honor: Warfighter – single-player launch videohttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-%e2%80%93-single-player-launch-video/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-%e2%80%93-single-player-launch-video/#respondTue, 23 Oct 2012 14:23:54 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=309514Medal of Honor: Warfighter is out today in the US, and while you have already watched the launch trailer for the multiplayer portion, EA wants you to have a look at the launch trailer for the single-player too. It’s below. Medal of Honor: Warfighter lands in Europe on October 25 and the UK on October 26.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-%e2%80%93-single-player-launch-video/feed/0Medal of Honor: Warfighter day one patch comes highly recommendedhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-day-one-patch-comes-highly-recommended/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/23/medal-of-honor-warfighter-day-one-patch-comes-highly-recommended/#commentsTue, 23 Oct 2012 05:39:22 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=309322Medal of Honor: Warfighter goes on sale in the US in just a few hours, and users are very strongly advised to download and install a substantial day one patch before leaping into the fray.

EA has released the patch notes, probably to help convince users to bite the bullet and grab the patch as soon as possible – Danger Close “heartily encourages” everyone to grab the patch, which is coming to both PC and consoles.

The full notes are much too long to be of interest to most of you, but contain fixes for a significant number of single- and multiplayer bugs, some of which sound quite serious.

Speculation has linked the patch to rumours that review copies have not been supplied in as timely a fashion as usual; we don’t review, so aren’t in any position to comment, but IGN reports a delay, and said EA wants reviewers to experience the patched version.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter lands in Europe on October 25 and the UK on October 26.

The first of the two episodes presented below explains infils – the “infiltration or insertion onto a target”.

“Depending on the mission, tactical methods include high-altitude jumps, boats, ground vehicles or helos to attack each target and hopefully come home safely,” Danger Close explains.

The previous episode, Spec Ops, discusses the titular agents.

“Spec Ops are experts in tradecraft acquired through extensive field experience in special reconnaissance, sabotage, snatch and grab and ambush often penetrating their targets completely undetected,” apparently.

The pack contains the Darra Gun Market and Chitral Compound, once thought to be one of Bin Laden’s hideouts.

Zero Dark Thirty is based on the movie of the same name, based on the mission to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden.

The multiplayer pack will run you $9.99 and part of the proceeds will benefit EA’s Project Honor program. The pack launches December 17 on all formats and is free for pre-order customers.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/20/medal-of-honor-warfighter-video-the-zero-dark-thirty-map-pack/feed/8Medal of Honor: Warfighter – multiplayer launch videohttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/18/medal-of-honor-warfighter-multiplayer-launch-gameplay-trailer/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/18/medal-of-honor-warfighter-multiplayer-launch-gameplay-trailer/#commentsThu, 18 Oct 2012 13:33:28 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=308282Medal of Honor: Warfighter releases next week, and EA wants you to get excited over it. So much so, it sent over a launch trailer for the multiplayer portion.

Multiplayer allows you and your Fireteam buddies to run around the place shooting in customized multiplayer battles.

Players can choose between six classes, eight real world locations, twelve international Warfighters, 35 mode combinations, and “thousands” of Fireteams.

Global Warfighters, who are the “best of the best” will be noted on the game’s leaderboards.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter releases on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 23 in the US and October 26 in the UK.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s multiplayer beta, an Xbox 360 Gold exclusive, started last week and runs through October 15.

The game launches on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 23 in the US and October 26 in the UK.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/11/new-medal-of-honor-warfighter-screens-show-off-the-games-multiplayer/feed/0Medal of Honor: Warfighter vidoc focuses on SAShttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/09/medal-of-honor-warfighter-vidoc-focuses-on-sas/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/09/medal-of-honor-warfighter-vidoc-focuses-on-sas/#commentsTue, 09 Oct 2012 12:15:23 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=305099Medal of Honor: Warfighter is out October 26th in the UK, and developer Danger Close has released a new vidoc that focuses on the game’s SAS team, firearms and more. Check it out below.

Speaking with Videogamer, Jones was asked about Warfighter coming on two discs, to which he replied, “I think that might be a reality for us as well. It’s DVD format versus Blu-ray and you’re going to see that split at certain times, especially with the amount of content that we’re delivering.”

When asked about HD texture install options, Jones added, “I believe we are [including an optional HD texture installation], but I don’t know that we can confirm that. We haven’t had it confirmed to us.”

So there you go, shiny textures and a two-disc option for all the Xboxers out there.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/08/medal-of-honor-warfighter-xbox-360-has-two-discs-hd-texture-install-report/feed/0Medal of Honor: Warfighter multiplayer – Bergqvist discusses endgame, hacking, VOIP, morehttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/06/medal-of-honor-warfighter-multiplayer-bergqvist-discusses-endgame-hacking-voip-more/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/06/medal-of-honor-warfighter-multiplayer-bergqvist-discusses-endgame-hacking-voip-more/#respondSat, 06 Oct 2012 18:08:47 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=304431Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s multiplayer will be a “cohesive experience,” with single-player and multiplayer sharing features, plus, will be a more expansive than last time out, according to creative director of multiplayer at Danger Close, Kristoffer Bergqvist.

Speaking with Games.On.Net, the ex-DICE employee, who worked on the Battlefield series for six years, said the team looked at multiplayer flaws from the first game and set about making sure the same mistakes weren’t repeated in Warfighter.

“One of the things we knew from the start was that we wanted to be one, cohesive experience,” said Bergqvist. “We also wanted to expand on the depth of the game, to be a game that you played for months and months and years. We did that in a couple of ways. Firstly we expanded the content a lot. Six multiplayer classes instead of three, classes all have unique support actions, they all have unique grenade types and weapon systems. Even things like run speeds. Just a lot of content inside the core gameplay.

“We’re also adding endgame features, such as platoon versus platoon matches, which is our take on clan gaming, and trying to make that as accessible as possible. We also really want to support this game post-launch, making sure it stays up to date. We implemented systems for post-launch patching so that we can update stuff like weapon damage and recoil without deploying patches – we can do it server side.

“If we see that nobody is using a gun because it’s not powerful enough, we can bump it up without needing a patch.”

Speaking of post launch support, Bergqvist said the team spoke with DICE quite a bit regarding vulnerabilities to certain hacks in Frostbite 2, noting that when DICE finds a hole and closes it, Danger Close does as well.

“We have removed parts of the code [in Frostbite 2] that were most exposed to hacking,” he said. “It’s a very real problem, and we don’t tolerate it. We’ll do everything we can to stop it.”

The team will combat such exploits and hacks two different ways: a dedicated team which will combat cheating after launch; and Punkbuster support for the PC version.

In the interview, Bergqvist also went into detail on how Danger Close brought in features which it felt make Warfighter stand out from Call of Duty and Battlefield; how the Fireteam Feature will work; why the game runs at 30fps on consoles; how the in-game VOIP will work, even when switching fireteams and more.

He also explains why you can’t look down a scope when prone. Hint: you can’t really do this in real-life anyway.

It’s a rather comprehensive interview from a multiplayer standpoint, so you’ll want to give it a read.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s multiplayer beta, and Xbox 360 Gold exclusive, started yesterday and runs through October 15.

The game launches on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 23 in the US and October 26 in the UK.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/06/medal-of-honor-warfighter-multiplayer-bergqvist-discusses-endgame-hacking-voip-more/feed/0Medal of Honor: Warfighter ‘Demolition’ trailer brings out the big gunshttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/24/medal-of-honor-warfighter-demolition-trailer-brings-out-the-big-guns/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/24/medal-of-honor-warfighter-demolition-trailer-brings-out-the-big-guns/#commentsMon, 24 Sep 2012 16:42:59 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=300445Medal of Honor: Warfighter has received a new SEAL Team 6 training video, this time focusing on heavily-armed demolition teams trained to reduce enemies to bloody puddles. Get your testosterone fix below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/24/medal-of-honor-warfighter-demolition-trailer-brings-out-the-big-guns/feed/4MoH: Warfighter’s open multiplayer beta goes live in October – 360 exclusivehttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/21/medal-of-honor-warfighters-open-multiplayer-beta-goes-live-in-october/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/21/medal-of-honor-warfighters-open-multiplayer-beta-goes-live-in-october/#commentsFri, 21 Sep 2012 13:20:08 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=299814Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s open multiplayer beta will go live worldwide in October as an Xbox 360 exclusive, EA has announced.

Those who download the beta will also be awarded with 60 minutes of Double XP when the full game launches.

The Medal of Honor: Warfighter beta will feature the new multiplayer mode called HotSpot, where players “attack and defend randomly-selected locations on the Sarajevo Stadium map in Bosnia.”

Inspired by “real life operations,” players will team-up in pairs using the game’s co-op Fireteam system.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s multiplayer beta will be available for a limited time in early October exclusively for the Xbox 360.

You will need to be an XBL Gold member in order to participate.

The game will launch on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 23 in the US and October 26 in the UK. Players that pre-order the Medal of Honor: Warfighter Limited Edition before the game launches will receive The Hunt Map Pack at no extra cost.

“Battlefield 3 players, they’re already combat-trained to play Warfighter. When they come over, when we launch, it’s going to feel familiar because of Frostbite 2 and Battlelog, and it’s just going to be a nice change for them.”

Danger Close is no stranger to controversy. The last Medal of Honor, the 2010 shooter responsible for rebooting the IP up to layer-status with Battlefield for EA, ended up in hot water over plans to have its multiplayer opposing force named “Taliban”. EA was forced to change it at the eleventh hour. Continuing the theme, a Medal of Honor tomahawk was pulled just before gamescom this year over press concerns.

And now we have DLC based on the hunt for Bin Laden, the latest reveal to cause an internet stink. Danger Close lead Greg Goodrich and his team appear to be pushing the envelope in terms of what’s morally acceptable in the war games space, and it’s all, he told me at gamescom, in the name breaking down stereotypes, reverence for armed service, and telling the stories some of us may not be comfortable to experience.

Greg was speaking in Cologne last month.

VG247: I’m going to get this out of the way quickly.

Greg Goodrich: Uh-oh. He’s coming right at me. Right from the top.

You’ve pulled your tomahawk promotion. Are you disappointed to have to do that? In the last game you dropped the use of the word Taliban for the opposing force…

Yeah. Controversy loves MoH, I guess. I don’t know why.

It’s the authenticity angle, surely.

Yeah. I was just talking to one of my colleagues. I tried to order that sword from Blizzard, but I didn’t get in on time. You know, I’ve seen the Rambo knife; I’ve seen the Indiana Jones themed bullwhip that they sell at Disneyland. I don’t understand. I don’t. The unfortunate thing is that 100% of the sales of those things were going to go to charity. That’s the unfortunate thing. It would have been a significant amount of money for charity.

Why did you pull it?

PR: We just had to pull it.

That’s fine.

Anyway.

You’re nearly done with the game. You’re about to go gold?

We’re very close, yeah. What am I doing here, right?

Yeah, right.

That’s a great question. I don’t know. Talking about tomahawks [laughs].

Preacher’s story.

You’ve got your single-player reveal, which is going to be very soon.

We had a single-player trailer which we put out a few weeks ago. It’s Preacher’s story. We’re really doubling down on the soldier’s story from the soldier’s point of view. This story was actually written by two of the guys while they were deployed overseas, and it speaks of service and sacrifice and brotherhood, all those core tenants which we’ve always focused on with Medal of Honor. But we’re going a little deeper on the personal side. We’re trying to break down those stereotypes of the special operations operators. We all have these very stereotypical ideas of what an assaulter is, from any one of those communities, right? That barrel-chested, knuckle-dragging door-kicker that shoots bad guys in the face, right? It’s part of their job, and they’re clearly genetically different, but having spent four years with these guys now, having spent time with them and met their families… They’re just like you and me. They have a job. It’s an extraordinary job, but it is a job. They also have home lives and people that count on them and they have the everyday things that we all deal with.

We’ve been in the longest sustained conflict in the history of our nation, so it’s taken a toll. It’s taken a toll on families and relationships.

Is part of the story based on the fact that a lot of soldiers find it difficult to readjust?

It’s not the readjustment. It’s more to do with the fact that guys are sacrificing overseas, but the families are also sacrificing at home. Kids are growing up not knowing who dad is. In our story, Preacher and his wife, Lena, have kind of come to this breaking point. He’s gone 300 days out of the year on special operations. If you’re not deployed in a combat zone you’re off training, improving your skills, doing something to make you better at what you do. They have a young daughter and she needs help. She’s, like, “I’m done with this. I’m gone.”

She moves home to Spain to her parents to help raise the child, but Preacher’s a fighter, a problem-solver. He’s not going to let this happen. In these communities the divorce rate’s 90-95%, and he wants to be that 5% that make it. What we do explore is what happens when those two worlds – work life and home life – intersect.

This threat of PETN is a very real threat. We first heard about it in the shoes of Richard Reid, it showed up in Times Square in a train station, and most recently in printer toner cartridges that were coming from Yemen on board US-bound cargo planes. Along with his colleagues, he’s trying to keep this stuff, this nasty shit, off our shores. Some gets by and those two worlds intersect. We kind of go from there.

“It’s never really about the enemy, just as Saving Private Ryan wasn’t a movie about the Nazis. It was a story about what guys would do for each other, the same as Band of Brothers, right?”

It’s very different from the first game, which was focused on the combat experience in Afghanistan.

Right. And our game narrative and our gameplay is still that. Our difference is that historically Medal of Honor has always been about a single historical event, whether it be Normandy or Market Garden of Pearl Harbour. That game was loosely based on Operation Anaconda, which was a fight, essentially, in a 15km radius in the Shahi-Kot Valley in Afghanistan. In this game we wanted to open it up, and not only go global and international with the different operators in multiplayer, but to have a global look at this problem, and at the networks that are distributing this stuff. We talk about Abu Sayyaf from the Phillipines, AQ of the Arabian Peninsula and al-Shabaab in Solmalia, as well as others. This game is the first Medal of Honor game that isn’t based on one single historical event. It’s multiple events connected by a single threat, and that’s the threat of PETN.

Is it the market that’s pushed you in this direction, or is it something you wanted to do?

It was the story. For the single-player, it was the story. Secondly, we have a huge international fanbase, and this game has always been about the American soldier. We figured that honour, brotherhood and respect aren’t American traits: they’re warrior traits. We wanted to open it up and allow gamers to feel some of that national pride. If I’m growing up in Poland and I want to be a bad-ass, I don’t grow up wanting to be a US Navy SEAL; I grow up wanting to be a GROM commando. In Britain I want to be SAS or SBS, or KSK in Germany. Let’s gamers get into those boots, and experience what it’s like to be in those boots, fighting as one of those operators.

As regards the contemporary theatre, is this it for Medal of Honor? There’s a lot of discussion in the shooter community at the moment about the validity of the contemporary setting. We’ve seen Call of Duty move forward now…

Well, Black Ops did.

True enough. But there is a feeling that the contemporary shooter’s been saturated in the same way World War II was saturated a few years ago. Assuming the contemporary setting does become tired at some point, what’ll be next? Is the future the way?

I don’t know. Again, with us it starts with the soldier story. We like to think that the era didn’t define Medal of Honor. Yes, we did a lot of World War II games, but that’s not what defines Medal of Honor. What defines Medal of Honor is the reverence for service and sacrifice, and those stories of brotherhood and honour and respect. Those themes show up everywhere, no matter what the era, the time-frame, what war or what conflict. It’s never really about the enemy, just as Saving Private Ryan wasn’t a movie about the Nazis. It was a story about what guys would do for each other, the same as Band of Brothers, right? It’s sort of the way we look at it.

The Medal of Honor authenticity angle’s added the buddy system to multiplayer this time.

Yes, fireteams.

There’s been some really good feedback from the people playing it, but a lot are saying it’s really hardcore, a real shooter fan’s shooter. Is there a danger in adding authentic features like this?

It’s a balance. It’s a difficult balance. Making an authentic first-person shooter is extremely difficult. We have these lanes in the swimming pool we have to stay in, and every now and then we’ll dip under the lane and go to the left or the right, but we always have to come back. But it is an action shooter, and we’re trying to reach a very large audience, and that audience expects certain things, so we try to give them that, but in our own tone, our own flavour.

The different modes are very different. In multiplayer we have Homerun, which is a very hardcore, very quick, fast-tempoed, round-after-round type of game. Hotspot is a little different, Sector Patrol’s a little different, as are the other modes we’ll be shipping with. All of them cater to different types of play styles. When you add Fireteams on top of that, and when you said it’s being received well, we thought we were onto something, that it was really cool. We took it to E3 and showed it and everyone just picked up on it. Everyone was just trying to find that perfect fireteam combination. It’s been really fun to see the different combinations people gravitate to in certain maps, so we’ll go back, take that feedback, get that telemetry from our testers and say, ‘OK, we’ve got to balance this.’ Especially when you’re talking about 72 different operators, we’ve got to balance it so that at the end of the day it comes down to player skill, and teamwork, and co-operative play, and not something that we missed as far as balance was concerned. At E3, Demolition-Spec Ops was a really popular combination, because you had the tank tanking and the Spec Ops guy identifying bad guys.

One of the Spec Ops perks is being able to see enemies through walls. That created a bit of as stink, as some were of the opinion that it was legalised wall-hacking.

Again, it’s a balance. With the fireteam stuff, you can see your fireteam buddy, and with revenge you can see a red outline as well. It’s a balance. But guess what? That Spec Ops guy can’t do a lot of the things a heavy gunner can do, and he can’t call in certain aircraft and airstrikes as others can do, and his weapons systems are a little different from the sniper. It’s a balance. And it’s not all the time. You can’t just run around the game looking through walls. Just like with Demolition, you can’t run around the map the whole time with your mask down. It’s a momentary thing you get for doing well, and you can use it and it’ll need to replenish.

People are loving it. I think a lot of the stink online came from people who haven’t played it yet. They just look and go, “It’s a legal wall-hack.” But they haven’t played it or experienced it. I’d encourage people to try it out and give it a shot before passing judgement.

Finally, then, you have the Battlefield 4 beta bundled with Medal of Honor.

Yeah.

What kind of boost do you expect that to give to your sales?

We’ve always had a very close partnership with our colleagues at DICE. In the last Medal of Honor in 2010 we gave away the Battlefield 3 beta, and now with Battlelog and the meta-game and everything we’re doing on the social network system, these two franchises are sister franchises. Actually, I’ll say big brother and little brother [laughs]. We work very closely together and share a fanbase, and I think for the Battlefield 3 players, they’re already combat-trained to play Warfighter. When they come over, when we launch, it’s going to feel familiar because of Frostbite 2 and Battlelog, and it’s just going to be a nice change for them.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/11/medal-of-honor-interview-greg-goodrich-talks-controvery/feed/8Medal of Honor: Warfighter ‘Hunt’ DLC based on hunt for Bin Ladenhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/10/medal-of-honor-warfighter-hunt-dlc-based-on-hunt-for-bin-laden/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/10/medal-of-honor-warfighter-hunt-dlc-based-on-hunt-for-bin-laden/#commentsMon, 10 Sep 2012 14:05:57 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=295498Medal of Honor: Warfighter is flirting with controversy again in its ‘Hunt’ map pack. The DLC delivers a pair of maps based on locations in Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow’s upcoming movie Zero Dark Thirty. The movie focuses on America’s decade-long search for Bin Laden.

The first map in the Hunt pack – called the Zero Dark Thirty pack Stateside – is The Darra Gun Market, and an official descriptor posted on the Medal of Honor: Warfighter blog reads, “The Darra Gun Market is located in a tribal land where the rules are defined by only two principles – hospitality and revenge. No police are allowed to enter the area and all the laws are made by the tribal leader.”

“This small town in Pakistan is home to dozens of back-alley shops and self-taught machinists who are in many cases building guns by hand. Almost no outsiders ever see this town. What better place to hide than where only locales and known tribal members are allowed to enter.”

The second map, Chitral described as, “another area of Pakistan thought for a time to be one of Bin Laden’s hideouts. A rural mountainous area filled with deep narrow valleys, it has many places that are inaccessible several months each year because of snow and road conditions.”

“There are over 1200 small towns scattered throughout the Chitral district and finding someone who doesn’t want to be found would be next to impossible.”

The pack launches December 17 on all formats. It’s free to pre-order customers, but will cost £7.99 for everyone else, CVG reports. £1 of each DLC sale will go EA’s Project Honor war veteran fund.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/10/medal-of-honor-warfighter-hunt-dlc-based-on-hunt-for-bin-laden/feed/107Medal of Honor: Warfighter combat training episode 2 focuses on Point Manhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/06/medal-of-honor-warfighter-combat-training-episode-2-focuses-on-point-man/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/06/medal-of-honor-warfighter-combat-training-episode-2-focuses-on-point-man/#commentsThu, 06 Sep 2012 16:36:21 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=294502Medal of Honor: Warfighter has a new SEAL Team 6 combat training video available for viewing, and it focuses on Point Man. Watch it below. You can re-watch episode 1 here, which shined the spotlight on the Sniper. Medal of Honor: Warfighter launches on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in October.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/06/medal-of-honor-warfighter-combat-training-episode-2-focuses-on-point-man/feed/1Medal of Honor tomahawk promotion cancelledhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/08/16/medal-of-honor-tomahawk-promotion-cancelled/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/16/medal-of-honor-tomahawk-promotion-cancelled/#commentsThu, 16 Aug 2012 07:21:40 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=287134References to Project Honor, a scheme to sell replica tomahawks to raise money for war veterans, have been removed from EA websites after editorial condemnation of the program.

EA’s Greg Goodrich told Eurogamer the promotion was (ha ha) axed after the publisher took note of the site’s criticisms.

“The Voodoo Tomahawk has since been removed from our website because of the article,” he said.

The Medal of Honor website links to a number of commercial partners offering weapons of various kinds, as part of its claims to authenticity, but the tomahawk was the only direct replica of an in-game item revealed so far. Several gaming websites questioned the taste of the promotion, notably Gameological.

It’s not clear how EA will handle the scheme’ abrupt cancellation.

“That was an effort to raise a lot of money for charity, and we were well on our way to raising a lot of money with that tomahawk, but I don’t know what will happen with that now,” Goodrich said.

“That whole effort, we’ve been working with those partners because we wanted to be authentic, and we wanted to give back to the communities. Every one of those partners, none of them paid a dime for product placement – all the money generated went to Project Honor.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/16/medal-of-honor-tomahawk-promotion-cancelled/feed/5Medal of Honor: Warfighter – Special Baffled Reporthttp://www.vg247.com/2012/08/02/medal-of-honor-warfighter-special-baffled-report/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/02/medal-of-honor-warfighter-special-baffled-report/#commentsThu, 02 Aug 2012 07:32:45 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=281867Brenna Hillier is so bad at shooters that when she goes on vacation the average KDR of Sydney goes up significantly. Who better to preview Medal of Honor: Warfighter?

Medal of Honor: Warfighter

Due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in October.

The follow-up to last year’s reboot of the venerable franchise, also developed by Danger Close.

DICE lent a hand with last year’s offering, but this one’s all in-house; Danger Close has gone the patriotic route by offering operators from a dozen nation’s Tier 1 organisations.

“Please don’t start your client until the server is online, so we can buddy you up with your deskmate,” an EA representative advised us.

I hammered the escape key guiltily while my would-be buddy snickered. (He’d get his when his A key wigged out halfway through a match, leaving him scuttling crab-like around the map.)

This was the start of my Medal of Honor: Warfighter experience – I had already misunderstood (or completely ignored) an instruction and both embarrassed and inconvenienced everyone. I sulked, slinking lower in my chair and determining to steal as many of EA’s Coke Zeros and florentines as I could to make up for this indignity.

“Are you really that shit at shooters?” my friend asked.

Yes, I bloody well am. I point my army man around the map like a truck; the cross hair is a steering wheel rather than a weapon. When I spot an enemy I have to frantically mouse for him rather than being already positioned at head height. I can never remember what the different classes do, or how to use their special abilities, and I’ve never, ever learned to be a team player or how not to get shot in the back. I am the Worst at Shooters. It’s a thing.

Warfighter doesn’t seem like a particularly great place to get on board. It’s not for people like me, a little bit baffled and nervous.

For one thing, and I say this with genuine love, it’s kind of too beautiful. EA seemed to have set us up on beastly gaming rigs, presumably with all the options turned up to 11, and the detail of Pirate Town was quite overwhelming. I kept stopping to look at the flickering shadows in a narrow stairwell lit by a flare, or gazing out over the ocean, when I should have been sprinting to cover. For a military shooter, Warfighter is packing some serious colours. An overturned boat on the beach near the south end of the map. Brightly painted doors. Fluttering vegetation and a Mediterranean sky. It’s a nice break for the greys-and-browns, although naturally they have a strong presence.

EA kitted us out with some decent headsets so the sensual assault could hits us more efficiently, from more than one organ. On those rare instances when I wasn’t hearing the rapid tat-tat of MCV Pacific headshotting me with his ridiculously powerful rice krispie gun again or the deep thunder of my Canadian heavy’s arm-cannon completely failing to hit anybody or anything, someone was calling in an air assault so very present that I wanted to hide under the desk, or bringing in a Black Hawk to fill the sky with furious confusion.

Pirate Town is an absolute warren of paths, leaving you plenty of scope to sneak across the map and never see anybody at all – but the map itself is so intimately sized that it’ll only take the enemy three seconds to come find you.

But let’s assume you don’t suffer some kind of kinaesthetic meltdown in the face of fancy graphics and sound design; Warfighter is still pretty impenetrable. Pirate Town is an absolute warren of paths, leaving you plenty of scope to sneak across the map and never see anybody at all – but the map itself is so intimately sized that it’ll only take the enemy three seconds to come find you. We were playing a capture the flag mode with three zones to hold, and it didn’t matter how stealthily you approached a hotzone – once you were in it, you’d be swamped in moments. There was little room or time to set up cross-fire zones or line synergistic classes up to support each other. You’d just end up half a dozen blokes like a fish in a barrel. It seems a waste of some of the more interesting abilities, like the one where you use a helicopter to set up a new spawn point – you’re only going to appear half a second from your destination.

Perhaps to compensate for the small scale of the battlefield, our fellows didn’t seem to move along at a spanking pace, or even to aim very quickly – although that might have been me, let’s face it. But even at full sprint, my assault class guy wasn’t exactly nimble, and neither the heavy nor light classes seemed to offer a significant change of pace.

This ponderousness extended to recovering from setbacks, too. The buddy system is supposed to mean you can respawn immediately with your mates, but your buddy needs to be out of sight for the length of a cooldown bar for it to work. With everyone on top of each other, this almost never happened. Regenerating health took a heck of a long time, too – I know PC elitists sometimes sneer at the “console” mechanism of quickly-regenerating health, but every bullet seemed to reduce my fellow to near death, after which he’d have to take a nap for a good 20 seconds. I kept running out of Coke because I had so much time to drink it in.

Preacher’s story.

So on the one hand, the action is so rapid and intense there’s barely time to think, and on the other, things seemed a little clunky and unresponsive. It’s a bad combination for a beginner like myself, and combined with an apparent emphasis on team-based played and a system of special abilities, it’s pretty clear that Warfighter caters to an established shooter crowd.

But that’s what the established shooter crowd wants, right? It may be amazing. I can’t judge. It is extremely pretty, though.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter arrives on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November. My hot tip: if you hammer the prone key it looks like you’re breakdancing.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/02/medal-of-honor-warfighter-special-baffled-report/feed/3Medal of Honor: Warfighter video tells Preacher’s storyhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/08/01/medal-of-honor-warfighter-video-tells-preachers-story/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/01/medal-of-honor-warfighter-video-tells-preachers-story/#commentsWed, 01 Aug 2012 12:30:16 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=281537EA has released a new video for Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which touches upon Preacher’s story. In the game, Preacher and his fellow teammates are sent in to hunt down a global threat. The video is a mix of short, blink and you’ll miss gameplay clips and CG, which looks very live-action in some spots. Watch below. Game’s out in October.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/01/medal-of-honor-warfighter-video-tells-preachers-story/feed/10Medal of Honor Warfighter: ‘poor quality of first game will hurt sales’ – analysthttp://www.vg247.com/2012/07/31/medal-of-honor-warfighter-poor-quality-of-first-game-will-hurt-sales-analyst/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/31/medal-of-honor-warfighter-poor-quality-of-first-game-will-hurt-sales-analyst/#commentsTue, 31 Jul 2012 10:08:17 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=280940Medal of Honor: Warfighter is just one of many FPS titles vying for a slice of Call of Duty’s audience this year, but a US financial firm has said the ‘poor quality’ of the original and a lack of E3 interest will cause sales to suffer.

In a research paper released to Forbes Doug Creutz – an analyst with US firm Cowen – has revealed that the firm slashed its projected sales figures for Warfighter after a poor E3 showing.

Cowen originally estimated that Medal of Honor: Warfighter would shift 2.3 million copies from its October 26 launch until December.

But Creutz revealed that after E3 2012, the firm reappraised its projections down to just 1.4 million.

Creutz explained the shift, “This is based on a very soft performance since E3 in Amazon’s top-selling game rankings compared to other recent titles. We think the most likely culprit for apparent gamer disinterest is the poor quality of the last ‘Medal of Honor’ game in 2010.”

Medal of Honor: Warfighter wasn’t the only EA game to have its projections slashed, as the firm estimates that Star Wars: The Old Republic will also take a hit this year.

Cowen also estimates that BioWare’s MMO active player base will fall from 1 million to 500,000 due to “continued poor server density trends.”

Are you excited for Medal of Honor: Warfighter? Let us know all about it below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/31/medal-of-honor-warfighter-poor-quality-of-first-game-will-hurt-sales-analyst/feed/7EA and Linkin Park tease collaboration on Medal of Honor: Warfighterhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/07/24/ea-and-linkin-park-tease-collaboration-on-medal-of-honor-warfighter/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/24/ea-and-linkin-park-tease-collaboration-on-medal-of-honor-warfighter/#commentsTue, 24 Jul 2012 18:46:53 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=279377EA and Linkin Park are teasing something, and that something is related to Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Likely it’s a track for the game, as 2009’s MoH offering included one from the band as well. The teaser is below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/24/ea-and-linkin-park-tease-collaboration-on-medal-of-honor-warfighter/feed/8EA Update hits the Battlefield with Armored Kill, MOH: Warfighterhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/07/20/ea-update-hits-the-battlefield-with-armored-kill-mohwarfighter/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/20/ea-update-hits-the-battlefield-with-armored-kill-mohwarfighter/#respondFri, 20 Jul 2012 15:15:39 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=278751EA has posted its latest update video, which we have inserted for you below, and in your host Julia shows off Battlefield 3: Armored Kill. There’s also chat about how Danger Close are asking players to decide on the name of a new “Sport Mode”for Medal of Honor: Warfighter, and the Battlefield 4 Beta is mentioned for a brief moment. That’s all really. Enjoy.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/19/medal-of-honor-warfighter-lan-match-gets-freddified/feed/6DICE isn’t finished with Battlefield 3 just yet, says the firmhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/07/17/dice-isnt-finished-with-battlefield-3-just-yet-says-the-firm/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/17/dice-isnt-finished-with-battlefield-3-just-yet-says-the-firm/#commentsTue, 17 Jul 2012 14:07:27 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=277617DICE wants to reassure fans that just because Battlefield 4 is in the works, it doesn’t mean the studio is finished with Battlefield 3.

“As ever, we are humbled by the community’s response to the game, and couldn’t be happier with the feedback we have received to Battlefield 3 Premium. With the Back to Karkand and Close Quarters expansion packs already out, Armored Kill around the corner, and End Game and Aftermath still on the horizon, we’re looking forward to many more hours of gameplay with you, and can’t wait to see the stories you will tell through Battlelog and player created videos,” reads the post.

“But we’re not ready to talk about Battlefield 4 yet – in the meantime, we hope you will continue to enjoy Battlefield 3 and all the Battlefield 3 Premium content still to come.”

The firm went on to say it would like fans to try out Danger Close’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which if you pre-order the Limited Edition, you will be guaranteed access to the Battlefield 4 beta which will take place in “fall 2013.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/17/dice-isnt-finished-with-battlefield-3-just-yet-says-the-firm/feed/8EA wants Medal of Honor and Battlefield to be differenthttp://www.vg247.com/2012/07/17/ea-wants-medal-of-honor-and-battlefield-to-be-different/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/17/ea-wants-medal-of-honor-and-battlefield-to-be-different/#commentsTue, 17 Jul 2012 05:21:03 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=277497EA is keen to cater to different audiences with Medal of Honor and Battlefield, according to Labels boss Frank Gibeau.

“We are very careful that Battlefield and Medal of Honor stay differentiated,” Gibeau told GameInformer, as reported by Attack of the Fanboy.

“With Medal of Honor we tried to embrace that the game is real. The multiplayer is different than Battlefield.”

The executive said that there are pros and cons to having two different shooter brands, as opposed to rival Activision’s yearly Call of Duty machine.

“There is an inefficiency to having two different brands coming out alternating like that, there is some upside. You don’t have the annualized, sequel fatigue,” he said.

“We’re trying to use a sequencing strategy to keep it as fresh and different as possible. The trick is figuring out how to grow both of them together.”

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is the next major shooter from EA, due in October on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. We’ll have to wait until 2013 for the next Battlefield, which looks likely to be Battlefield 4.